Gender Bias in Managerial Positions in the Private Sector in Kosovo Diona Hoxha [email protected]

Gender Bias in Managerial Positions in the Private Sector in Kosovo Diona Hoxha Dxh6136@Rit.Edu

Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works

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8-2019 Gender Bias in Managerial Positions in the Private Sector in Kosovo Diona Hoxha [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Hoxha, Diona, "Gender Bias in Managerial Positions in the Private Sector in Kosovo" (2019). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from

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Gender Bias in Managerial Positions in the Private Sector in Kosovo

An Honors Society Project

Diona Hoxha Advisor: Venera Demukaj, Ph.D. August, 2019

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Contents 1. Acknowledgements ...... 4 2. Abstract ...... 5 3. List of Abbreviations ...... 6 4.1 List of Tables ...... 7 4.2 List of Figures ...... 7 5. Problem Statement ...... 8 6. Introduction-Women in Business in Kosovo ...... 8 7. Literature Review ...... 10 7.1 Gender barriers in Kosovo’s labor market ...... 10 7.1.1 Disregarding qualifications ...... 10 7.1.2 Traditional gender occupations ...... 11 7.1.3 Discriminatory language in job advertisements ...... 11 7.1.4 Maternity leave- lengthy, nevertheless, with low compensation ...... 13 7.1.5 Women employees and contracts ...... 13 7.2 Gender self-esteem gap ...... 14 7.2.1 Role Congruity Theory ...... 14 7.2.1.1 Social roles: Communal and agentic attributes ...... 15 7.2.1.2 Prejudice against female leaders and managers ...... 16 7.2.2 Criteria to apply for a job ...... 17 7.3 Gender quotas ...... 18 7.3.1 International examples ...... 18 7.3.1.1 Legal Instruments ...... 18 7.3.1.2 Voluntary regimes ...... 19 7.3.2 Pros ...... 19 7.3.2.1 No other measure has resulted to be more efficient until now ...... 19 7.3.2.2 Factor in efficiency ...... 20 7.3.3 Cons ...... 21 8. Methodology ...... 21 8.1 Secondary Data ...... 22 8.2 Primary Data ...... 22 8.2.1 Semi-structured Interviews ...... 22

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8.2.2 Surveys ...... 22 8.3 Limitations ...... 23 9. Results ...... 23 9.1 Unequal upbringing ...... 24 9.2 Confidence ...... 26 9.3 Perceived managerial traits based on gender ...... 27 9.4 Quotas ...... 32 10. Recommendations ...... 33 11. Conclusion ...... 34 12. References ...... 36 13. Appendices ...... 39

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1. Acknowledgements I would like to express my profound gratitude to the people who gave their valuable input in this research. My sincere appreciation goes to my Professor Venera Demukaj, who has guided me throughout this period and assisted me during my studies with no hesitation. Her valuable criticism and knowledge on the topic steered this research paper towards the right path.

I would also like to acknowledge the input of the survey respondents and the interviewed experts, who made this research credible and depicted their point of view on the current labor market in Kosovo. In this regard, I would like to express my thankfulness to my friends, Jehona Karavidaj and Leonora Cerreti, who did not hesitate to help me on field data collection and propose suitable interviewees for the topic.

Last but certainly not least, I must also take this opportunity to appreciate the continuous and never-ending support of my most valuable asset-my family, throughout my years of study. I dedicate this project to my mother, Teuta, my father, Erzen, my siblings, Drin and Nika and my other half Emir Abrashi. Their wise, empathic and supportive approach to encourage and guide me have made me forever indebted to them. Thank you!

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2. Abstract This project analyzes gender bias and gender barriers in managerial positions by focusing on private the sector in Kosovo. The study specifically analyzes the barriers that women in the private sector face, such as disregarding qualifications, traditional gender based occupations, discriminatory language in job ads, maternity leave and the lack of contracts that make the employee-employer relationship legally binding. It further elaborates on the concept of gender quotas in management and analyzes their effects in managerial positions and the workplace in general. The study also analyzes best practices outside Kosovo, in which gender equality has been integrated as a part of policies and the aim of decreasing the inequality gap has been achieved.

This research was written based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected through semi structured interviews and surveys. The results extracted by the primary and secondary data received by the interviews and surveys confirm that women are underrepresented in the labor market in Kosovo. Gender bias exists and this has penalized women from successfully competing in the market. Some of the most crucial factors of women marginalization, especially in the labor market, is Kosovo’s mentality and unequal upbringing of boys and girls. There are generally less women managers than men and women are slightly less confident to enter the labor market than men. Lastly, the quota imposed on the board of directors on joint stock companies in Kosovo is needed to increase women representation in these boards.

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3. List of Abbreviations AGE- Agency for Gender Equality CEDAW- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CFO- Chief Financial Officer EU-European Union GMI-Governance Metrics International KAS- Kosovo Agency of Statistics MLSW- Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare MEST- Ministry of Education, Science and Technology

STEM- Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

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4.1 List of Tables Table 1: Wording used in ads according to gender traits

Table 2: Change in percentages of women’s participation in management boards in Norway

Table 3: Number of women and men in each category of education from the total number of survey respondents

Table 4: Participation of women and men in each field

Table 5: Private Joint Stock Companies' Number of Board Members

4.2 List of Figures Figure 1: Percentage of the number of women managers in the respondents' workplace

Figure 2: Application for a job according to gender

Figure 3: Request for a promotion according to gender

Figure 4: Main traits attributed to a good manager

Figure 5: Main traits attributed to a good manager according to gender

Figure 6: Percentage of the number of women managers in the respondents' workplace

Figure 7: Statement 1 perception according to gender

Figure 8: Statement 2 perception according to gender

Figure 9: Percentage of companies with percentage intervals of women in the board of directors with 1 or more than 1 board member

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5. Problem Statement Across different cultures globally, women are not given the same opportunities that are guaranteed to men. The exclusion of women has been present in the social, economic, political and educational fields throughout different historical periods. The right to speak, vote, choose, live, decide, inherit and compete equally to men were some causes that women have fought to win during the course of many centuries. Even on such difficult circumstances, there were many women contributing to solving political issues, educating future generations, finding cures for different health problems, writing theories, discovering scientific answers to the unknown, expanding the household and many more. Nevertheless, their significance in historical events was overshadowed and they were not properly given credits on what they contributed to different fields (Hughes, 2016).

Kosovo is one of many countries in which gender stereotypes are rooted in its culture. Some of the concerning areas that undervalue Kosovar women’s role in the labor market are wage gaps, financial dependence, exclusion in decision making processes, non-existence of merit based promotions and unjust maternity leave implementation of policies (Mehmeti et al. 2017). This project analyzes gender bias and gender barriers in managerial positions by focusing on its impact on privately owned enterprises. It also elaborates on the concept and role of gender quotas in management and analyzes their effects in managerial positions and the workplace in general.

6. Introduction-Women in Business in Kosovo The 21st century is expected and is promoted to be an era of equal opportunities and gender neutral judgment. Kosovo has made considerable improvements from the initial stages of the gender equality battle. In 2015, the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo approved the law on Gender Equality, Law No. 05/L -02. This law states that Kosovo will “guarantee, protect and promote equality between genders,” and it aims to reflect values of a democratic state (Article 1, par. 1). Based on Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the law has been tailored to create equal opportunities in employment and occupation. Specifically, the law on Gender Equality guarantees a fair and equal treatment of both genders in “public and private areas of social life including…employment” (Article 2, par.1). Thus, ensuring gender equality in all sectors in order to increase the gender diversity in the labor market. Kosovo’s

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government established the Agency for Gender Equality, AGE, an institution which now monitors and implements the law on Gender Equality and encourages Kosovo’s institutions to take into account gender mainstreaming, gender based budgeting and disaggregated data collection. Despite the fact that there are laws that provide legal framework for gender equality, the social acceptance of such laws has not been fully embraced. The lack of the enjoyment of equal opportunities in practice is affected by weak implementation of Rule of Law by the institutions that are obliged to do so.

An analysis on gender differences at all levels of Kosovo showed that the 41.2% of the private sector is not aware of the new Labor Law, implying that there is no gender equality in the workplace (Färnsveden, et.al, 2014). When the participation of women in the labor force is thoroughly analyzed, it can be witnessed that women are disadvantaged in most spheres and the main gap of equal representation in the labor force is in the private sector. Out of all the women working age population, only 12.7% is employed and only 3.9% of that pool of female workers are senior officials or managers (Labor Force Survey, 2017). Further, surveys with businesses showed that only 9% of the business owners were women (World Bank, 2012). Based on a data set from the Ministry of Trade and Industry on Businesses in Kosovo (2018), from 61,600 registered businesses in Kosovo, 11,631 were owned by women and 49,969 were owned by men, that is 18.9 % and 81.1% respectively. Consequently, there is a 9.9% increase in women’s business ownership in the course of 6 years. Generally, women in Kosovo are more likely to have leadership and managerial roles in public and governmental institutions than in private ones. Nevertheless, the numbers are far from an equal representation. According to the paper ‘Representation of women in the boards of publicly-owned enterprises and independent agencies’, out of 299 managerial positions in the public sector, 47 of them are exercised by women (15.7%), while the rest is dominated by men (Gap Institute, 2017). From the women who own businesses, only a small portion of them aim to expand their business, while the others remain in their current level of expansion. The reasons behind the low number of women as business owners and managers lie on the lack of property ownership, social norms, domestic obligations, inability to pay childcare institutions and the low number of other women business owners and managers as role models (Gap Institute, 2017).

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The consideration of gender sensitive issues is beneficial for both employers and employees. Studies have shown that when gender diversity is taken into account, a company benefits in at least three ways: the economic performance of the firm increases, the boards take better qualitative decisions, firm’s leadership improves together with the ethical treatment of employees (Gap Institute, 2017). Some EU (European Union) countries have enforced quotas for the less represented gender in boards in order to achieve gender equality and the results were favorable similarly to political quotas (Gap Institute, 2017).

7. Literature Review 7.1 Gender barriers in Kosovo’s labor market 7.1.1 Disregarding qualifications Women’s participation in the labor force is drastically low compared to men’s. Even though there are no gender based differences in eligibility to work, nonetheless, women who are currently working have problems of securing a job, despite the fact that they are equally qualified with men for the same position.

In 2015, women were even more academically qualified than men in Kosovo. Out of the total job seekers equipped with a Bachelor Degree, 2,775 were women and 2,277 were men (MLSW, 2015). At the same time, the number of job seekers with no qualification whatsoever was lower among women (31,893) compared to men (36,502), which in this regard does not explain the high number of unemployed women (MLSW, 2015). Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS) and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) showed that in the academic years 2017/2018, there were more women graduating with Bachelor and Masters Degrees than men. In the University of Prishtina, women comprised 64.94% of the total 4974 Bachelor graduates, (Education Statistics, 2018). The same situation applies to the graduated students at the Master level. Out of a total of 1,340 graduated students, 757 were women (56.5%) and 583 were men (43.5%) (Education Statistics, 2018). The numbers for other public and private universities resembled to the population of the University of Prishtina. The graduation rates, qualifications and willingness to work retrieved from the above data are not proportional to women’s unemployment rates. Thus, the issue lies in the discriminatory market that prevents women from entering and contributing in it. Yet, official institutions justify the low participation rate of women in the labor

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force mostly with family obligations that prevent women from seeking a job or going back to work after a non-working period.

7.1.2 Traditional gender occupations The first barrier that women face is the traditional gender assigned positions, where positions are separated between men and women (Labor Market Discrimination, 2017). Usually, occupations that have to do with decision-making, managing staff, coordinating activities are assigned to men. Whereas, women’s traditional occupations are not related to senior management. The stereotypes are evident from the early stages of choosing a career. Based on the data provided by MEST, it can be inferred that traditional gender occupations are shaped further more in the Bachelor level of studies. In the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture in the University of Prishtina, only 30% of the total enrolled students in all academic years are women and in Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, only 38% of the total enrolled students are women (Education Statistics, 2018). In the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the gender gap increases further, where only 20% of the total enrolled students are women (Education Statistics, 2018). These gaps exists also in the Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary and Faculty of Physical Education and Sports. The opposite situation applies to the Faculty of Education, out of 2987 students enrolled in the University of Prishtina for all academic years, 93% are women (Education Statistics, 2018; see Appendix 1)). These statistics suggest a gender stereotypical behavior when it comes to choosing a profession. The traditional women related occupations are not characterized with attributes of Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and in this case, women are underrepresented in those fields. The same argument applies to senior level positions, which based on the low representation of women in such occupation, the gender occupations are the main barriers to gender bias in managerial positions.

7.1.3 Discriminatory language in job advertisements The Law on Gender Equality (Law No. 05/L -02) states that employers are prohibited to include “elements of gender discrimination in vacancy announcements” and it is applicable for all sectors (Article 17, par 1.1). Nonetheless, most of the job advertisements in the private sector use discriminatory language, which is derived by the promotion of the vacancy for a specific gender. Even if the selection process by the employer is fair and gender bias free, whenever there is gender discrimination used in the job vacancy, women are discouraged to apply (Gap Institute, 2017).

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Examples of such gender discriminatory language in job advertisements would be when the ad states that women are encouraged to apply in the position of a secretary, assistant, educator, flight attendant; or when men are explicitly wanted for the position of an electrician, programmer, pilot and so forth.

The importance of a language use in advertisements is shown in an experiment conducted in the US. The experiment was done through three different ads, the first one having gender discriminatory language, the second one having neutral language, and the third one reversing genders in traditional professions. The outcome of the experiment was that women showed more interest to apply for vacancies traditionally linked to men, when the ad was neutral, rather when it was biased. The language used is also related to the nature of words and the socially accepted attributes of specific genders that connects the description of the job and marginalizes the gender that presumably does not possess such qualities (Gaucher, Friesen & Kay, 2011). According to the experiment, ads use words that are masculine and feminine in nature, thus discourage applications. The table below shows the wording used in ads according to gender traits based on the experiment mentioned above:

Table 1: Wording used in ads according to gender traits

Masculine wording Feminine wording Leader Supportive Competitive Understanding Dominant Interpersonal skills Decision maker Emotional intelligence Ambitious Assistive Tough Caring The situation in the private sector in Kosovo reflects the same problems. In different job ads it was noticed that job vacancies that were intended for women had wording such as: supports, stores, maintains, assists, and modifies (Gap Institute, 2017). Whereas, leads, manages, analyses, assesses, develops, represents, supervises and so forth are used for masculine jobs (Gap Institute, 2017).

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7.1.4 Maternity leave- lengthy, nevertheless, with low compensation According to the Law on Labor, article 49, women are entitled to twelve months of maternity leave if they are in working relations (Law on Labor, Art. 49). According to Article 49, paragraphs two, three and four, women, who take the maternity leave, will be compensated with:

 60% of her salary for the first six months  50% of the average salary in Kosovo for the next three months  If a woman chooses to extend her maternity leave, she is entitled to do so for three other months, however, she will not be paid.

Additionally, this law, specifically article 12, states that women reserve the right to continue working in the previous position with no interruption of contract. Nonetheless, the real life practice of employers does not comply with the Law on Labour. Because of the fear of experiencing a decrease in wage or downgrade in position after the maternity leave, women in the private sector use on average only seven months and three weeks of maternity leave, compared to that in the public sector where women take, on average, nine months and two weeks (Mehmeti, Hashani & Dobranja, 2017). Kosovo’s laws guarantee a relatively long and satisfactory maternity leave, however, compared to other countries and their maternity leave policies, the compensation women receive is not at the desired level. When it comes to maternity leave and difficulties in the labor market, Kosovo has visible obstacles (Halili, 2016). Thus, not only is it difficult for mothers to take their maternity leave because of the fear of being downgraded or even fired, but, it is also not financially helpful for them to do so. When it comes to this issue, the criteria of employment for women has to do with their personal life, such as whether they are planning to marry soon, are married, or if they are planning to have children in the near future. These questions are made to women, who are in the marrying age.

7.1.5 Women employees and contracts Maternity leave and childbearing is reflected even in the compilation of contracts and its signing. “One in three working women in the private sector do not have a working contract” (Mehmeti, Hashani & Dobranja, 2017). The most influenced professions by the lack of contracts are pharmacists, hairdressers, sales clerks, cooks, and cleaners, the study shows. This occurrence

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makes it easier for companies to exploit women and use their labor to tend to maximize their profits without properly compensating for labor.

The negative side of this aspect lies in the inability of working women to negotiate about the terms and conditions of their jobs. The employer has power to set all the arrangements and alter/modify/change the working conditions with no legal obligation to do so. The maternity leave burden leaves space for employers to hire women without a working contract. They receive labor, nonetheless, they are not legally obliged to pay women during their maternity leaves or secure them that their position will be available after they decide to come back.

Besides the lack of contracts, another issue is fixed term contracts. Women are more prone to being imposed to have this form of contracts. In the private sector, the number of fixed contracts is twice more than in the public sector (Mehmeti, Hashani & Dobranja, 2017). Having short-term contracts disables women to make financial planning and invest in capital because of the insecurity that lies in the short run contractual relations.

7.2 Gender self-esteem gap 7.2.1 Role Congruity Theory Looking past in historical heritage of different countries, the leaders, heroes, scientists, expeditors and warriors were mostly men. There were women working equally hard as men for the betterment of the society, nevertheless, their acts were not documented. It can be inferred that leadership and management positions in the political, economic and military sphere have been mostly men related entitlements. Even though women have succeeded to have management positions these days, “they remain quite rare as elite leaders and top executives” (Eagly & Karau, 2002). This phenomenon is explained by the term “glass ceiling,” which is an obstacle of bias and marginalization that prevents women from having higher-level leadership and management positions (Eagly & Karau, 2002). In 2001 in US, women comprised 46% of the total active workers in the labor market, however, only 45% of them had positions, in which they were required to leadership, managerial and executive responsibilities (US Bureau of Labor statistics, 2002). Furthermore, in 2000, women with major leadership positions among 500 companies comprised only 4% of the highest earnings positions and only 0.4% of the CEOs (Catalyst, 2000). Traditionally, this low representation of women in such positions has been explained by family

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related obligations and lack of motivation to apply for higher-level managerial positions. However, these justifications were considered as insufficient to explain the occurrence of underrepresentation. The Role Congruity Theory proposes another explanation for this issue- gender prejudice toward female leaders and managers.

Prejudice comes from the existence of perceptional relations between the attributes of a social group and the social norms that the specific group needs to comply with (Eagly & Karau, 2002). When there is incongruence between the social group and their social roles, the evaluation of the individual pertaining to that group lowers. This situation applies to women and the requirements of leadership and managerial roles.

7.2.1.1 Social roles: Communal and agentic attributes Social roles represent the beliefs and shared expectations that are socially projected to be met by a specific group, argues (Biddle, 1979). In most cases, these qualities, respectively to each group, become “behavioral tendencies” that tend to shape one’s personality in accordance to the norms (Eagly & Karau, 2002). Consequently, gender-typical social roles become the drivers of limitations when it comes to occupations. That said, men’s occupations are related to responsibilities of a higher status, whereas, women’s occupations with homemaker and lower status roles (Eagly et al., 2000). The social role theory is strongly related to communal and agentic attributes, in other words, behavior and personality traits pertaining to each gender.

Communal attributes are credited mostly to women and these attributes are related to the welfare of other people (Bakan, 1966). To name but a few, these characteristics are: assistive, kind, empathetic, gentle, sensitive and nurturing (Deaux et al. 1983). Agentic roles are attributed to men, which represent a behavior that is insistent, governing and confident, i.e. dominant, aggressive, striving, self-sufficient/confident that help the person behave like a leader and manager (Eckes, 1994). As a result, job ads reflect wording that relates to these communal and agentic characteristics. Communal characteristics are not the expected attributes that people attach as values in leadership and managerial positions. Thus, women are prejudiced when they have leader and managerial roles, since the norm is that these occupations have a more agentic nature.

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7.2.1.2 Prejudice against female leaders and managers The Role Congruity of Prejudice Toward Female Leaders states that there are two forms of prejudice when it comes to women and their non-traditional occupations. The first one is a “less favorable evaluation” of women’s abilities compared to men and the second one a negative valuation of the leadership/managerial behavior of women because that is not a desirable trait of the specific gender (Eagly & Karau, 2002).

The first prejudice, the perceived incapability of women in performing well in leading and managing, comes as a result of the masculinity perception of the leader/managerial occupation, sex perceivers, and other moderators (Eagly & Karau, 2002). The masculinity of the leadership/managerial role has been discussed above, in which, agentic traits take place. When it comes to sex perceivers the role of a manager, when perceived from opposite genders, differs (Eagly & Karau, 2002). An empirical investigation on managerial sex stereotypes showed that “think manager-think male” was a common and solid viewpoint in both genders in United States (Schein, 2001). An employer would positively discriminate a male candidate over a female candidate for the same position in the US. Nonetheless, there was mixed evidence of managerial traits when the sex perceivers were women. They consider managers to have androgynous traits (both female and male characteristics), thus, a combination of agentic and communal roles (Schein, 2001). Whereas, men were less likely to relate managerial roles to female traits whatsoever. This predisposition of men to view women as more incompetent to have managerial roles, according to Eagly and Kauru (2002), has been derived from men’s greater social power. Other influencers of gender stereotyping involve cultural and subcultural disparities between the social roles of both genders. This implies that gender roles can differ by geographic regions. At the same time, the gender stereotypes evolve with time and they are prone to constant modification in accordance to the events taking place and the new social trends.

The second form of prejudice arises when a women in power adopts more agentic traits. In order to fulfill the requirements of the ‘job description’, some women may choose or unconsciously embrace male characteristics in order to be treated more favorably in their occupation. Nonetheless, the adopted behavior is not desired and accepted as “womanish”, thus, prejudice arises. Women, in such instances, are evaluated as failing to fulfill their assigned communal gender expectations.

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Despite the overall hassle of prejudice of women in managerial positions, there is a more favorable evaluation of women in certain conditions. This occurrence takes place when women have attained high positions with important responsibilities that have agentic traits, which is called “double standard of competence” (Rosette & Tost, 2010). Usually, double standards take place when a specific group goes through tougher conditions and requirements (Foschi, 2000). Women’s position in leadership and managerial positions goes through the process of double standards competence. This can be simply illustrated by the stricter criteria and more convincing proof for the evaluators that has to be provided by women managers in order to be evaluated positively. In other words, the biased evaluations impose a double burden to women managers. The first one being the issue of firstly being accepted as a woman manager and the second one the issue of trying to break the glass ceiling by working harder and more effectively than men. Consequently, women managers who have succeeded to become excellent leaders and managers are considered as highly competent and favored more than men. Positive and more favorable evaluation takes place mostly in high managerial positions.

7.2.2 Criteria to apply for a job Women in the field of management and leadership go extra miles to prove themselves that they are competent for a specific job. Women do not apply for a job if they do not check every requirement box of the job vacancy, whereas, men apply for a job even if they fulfill only 60% of the criteria (Mohr, 2014). Of the over one thousand surveyed people in United States, women’s answers to the questions “Why did not you apply for that job?” were related to the job’s requirements (Mohr, 2014). Women consider the job vacancy’s qualifications as traits, skills and requirements that they should actually meet in real life. Because the norm to follow rules is mostly applied to women, they are disincentivised to apply for a job if they do not fulfill all the criteria (Mohr, 2014). Additionally, when women started to enter the labor market, they needed to prove their training and had to attain the right accreditation. These were used as credentials to apply for a job in order to remove the doubt of incompetence to the employer, something that was not necessarily needed to be demonstrated by men.

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7.3 Gender quotas 7.3.1 International examples The situation of women’s underrepresentation in management is a problem and reflects injustice (European Parliament, 2012). In 2010, only 3% of the presidents of management boards in the major companies in EU were women, whereas, women comprised only 12% of the management boards (European Parliament, 2012). Similarly, in 2011 in China, only 10% of the board rooms were filled by women, whereas, in India, 54% of companies had no women in their boards and only 5% of the overall corporate director positions were filled by women (Global Corporate Governance Forum, 2011). A 2010 study that involved 4,200 firms, showed that only 9% of the corporates’ boards globally are women (GMI, 2010).

In order to increase the number of women managers and leaders, gender quotas have started to be part of policies and regulations. To do so, two tools have been developed: the first one being with legal instruments and the second one being a voluntary regime.

7.3.1.1 Legal Instruments The first country to use a legal instrument to increase women representation in managerial positions is Norway. This country passed a law in 2003, which enforced a 40% quota of the members of the least represented gender in corporate boards (Storvik & Teigen, 2010). The law was applicable to all publicly owned enterprises, municipal companies and inter-municipal companies. Other countries such as Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland followed Norway’s example (Storvik & Teigen, 2010). If a company fails to meet the 40% quota, there are different sanctions in each country. In Norway, a company may be closed completely. Moreover, there are significant differences in the type of law used in each country and the time period (length of time) of reaching the target. Some countries provide incentives to encourage the implementation of the quota, i.e. in Spain, companies that have complied with the law, have priority in signing contracts with the government (Storvik & Teigen, 2010). The existence of the law may be temporary in some countries and in others long lasting based on the inclusion of marginalized groups. Lastly, the range of the positions varies. Some countries enforce the law in management boards only and others in management board and senior management simultaneously, Norway and Netherlands respectively (Storvik & Teigen, 2010).

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In Kosovo, there is a legal instrument being in force from 2018. The Law on Business Organizations (06/L-016), Article 34, on Joint Stock Company, states that the Board of Directors of a joint stock company must have a quota of 40% women fulfilled or else the company will be sanctioned (par. 2.5.1.). Voluntary regimes are not predicted by law in Kosovo, nonetheless, they are left up to the company to apply this method.

7.3.1.2 Voluntary regimes This form of gender equality enforcement is vast and diverse. Including but not limited to: transparency in recruitment processes, increasing awareness, education, training and internal corporate policies (Storvik & Teigen, 2010). Non-legislative mechanisms were undertaken by organizations, national authorities, companies in different sectors and the community itself to improve the situation of gender equality (Austrian Institute for SME Research, 2010). According to the Austrian Institute for SME Research, there were 133 non-legislative initiatives that were categorized in “labels; prizes/awards; charters; rankings/indices; and compendium of good practice” (2010). A part of these initiatives involved only a part of the management teams and others involved the entire employees. The areas of improvement were recorded to be training, connection, training, recruitment, communication and retention (Austrian Institute for SME Research, 2010).

7.3.2 Pros 7.3.2.1 No other measure has resulted to be more efficient until now There have been thorough argumentations and discussions regarding quotas that continue even today. Based on the legally enforced measure in Norway, it has been stated that women’s quotas on management boards have been the only way to increase the numbers and see change. Hoel (2008) argues that the process of increasing the participation of women in management board has been the fastest through quotas. Hoel (2008) acknowledges that quotas are a radical solution to the problem for sure, but they deliver the fastest improvement. To exemplify this change through years, the table depicts the change in percentages of women’s participation in management boards in Norway (Stovik & Teigen, 2010):

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Table 2: Change in percentages of women’s participation in management boards in Norway

Year Percentage increase to 2004 9% 2005 12% 2006 18% 2007 25% 2008 36% 2009 40%

It is argued that improvements on gender representation in Norway portray a positive effect because of the gender awareness in the political, economic and social sphere in that country. Norway has been applying legal and voluntary regimes together. It is true that the country was better prepared to face this trend and accept it. Nonetheless, even though the quota imposed on the management boards for the publicly owned enterprises increased the percentage of women in boards, the percentages of women in senior management, in which quotas were not imposed, did not increase. The percentage in senior management increased from “3% in 2002 to 5% in 2009” (Storvik and Teigen, 2010). The same study shows that only 2% of the CEOs were women (Storvik and Teigen, 2010). Voluntary regimes do contribute to decrease the gender gap in management, however, they are not as effective as mechanisms that are legally binding. There is no single case when the percentage of women in management boards has come close to 40% solely by voluntary regimes (European Parliament, 2012).

7.3.2.2 Factor in efficiency By not paying enough attention to gender diversity in their corporation composition, firms are limited to a narrower range of candidates. They might be missing out on valuable talent that would be a great asset to their company. Without quotas, firms would not be forced to add the gender factor in their recruitment processes. Because of gender based prejudice, women will have to give more than the men in the company. The first reason being to prove herself worthy of the job and the second one being the breaking of stereotypes and gender roles. Indeed, women are entering the labor market and aiming for male dominated positions by being even more qualified

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than their male colleagues (Optimizing Board Effectiveness with Gender Diversity, 2011). Besides the widened pool of candidates, the firm will benefit by performing much better financially and triggering a challenge in the current status quo. Firms that have at least three women board members have resulted to have improved the delegation of responsibility in the board and has emphasized attention on risk management (McKinsey & Company, 2007).

7.3.3 Cons Legally enforced quotas are not accepted with much enthusiasm due to the profit maximizing nature of firms. The main fear of the firms is that quotas provide a short term solution but according to them, that does not necessarily mean that they have found the most suitable people to fill 40% of the board positions. Similarly, women may feel like they were chosen to simply increase numbers and they will be less motivated to give their best in their assigned duties. For some companies and women, the quota diminishes the perception of the merit based position placement. A board needs variation on many areas, not limited to gender only. Starting from industry experience, age of the employees, board tenure, functional experience, ethnicity and stakeholders (Yilmaz, 2010). The focus should be on how well these components go with each other and how compatible they are with each other in order to make the board function properly. Quotas are criticized since they focus solely on one attribute rather on many and at the same time that does not ensure the best fit for the position (Global Corporate Governance Forum, 2011).

As a result, quotas as a tool have a notorious reputation from both the employers’ and employees’ perspective. The employers usually consider quotas as a government tool that harms them because they have to pay for more maternity leaves and employ staff that not necessarily is competent for the job. Whereas, employees see quotas as privilege that does not necessarily show them that they have been hired for their skills and knowledge.

8. Methodology This study is focused on the private sector in Kosovo. Its aim is to analyze gender prejudice toward women managers, by measuring employers’ perceptions. Also, this project strives to analyze whether quotas are effective to improve gender balance in management position. This study combines primary and secondary data, as explained in sections 8.1 and 8.2.

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8.1 Secondary Data This research paper’s sources were retrieved from the databases of institutions, governments, organizations, non-governmental organizations and journals. American Institute for SME Research, European Parliament, Global Corporate Governance Forum, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, World Bank and RIT Online Library were the main sources of secondary data are used in this paper to survey the global situation of the labor market and business management specifically. Publications from Gap Institute, Riinvest Institute, Kosovo Agency of Statistics, Kosovo 2.0, Laws from Kosovo’s Assembly, and publications from Kosovo’s Ministries were the sources used to retrieve information on the labor market in Kosovo.

8.2 Primary Data 8.2.1 Semi-structured Interviews There were four semi-structured interviews in total with people from different backgrounds and profiles. The first interviewee was an active participant of the civil society, who had knowledge and a long time involvement in gender equality issues. The second interviewee was a politician, whose experience in the political sphere regarding gender equality and quotas was required to draw parallels of quotas in the private sector. The third interviewee was a public policy and governance professor with broad knowledge in legal procedures, legislatures and rule of law. The fourth interviewee was from the private sector, whose input was needed to receive a business perspective on this issue. The interview questions depicted in Annex 2 and 3 were comprised of a maximum of ten questions.

8.2.2 Surveys A survey was designed in accordance with the literature review and the input of the mentor. The reason of the inclusion of a survey was to gather data on the public perception of women managers in general and the experience that different people had with managers. The questions aimed to receive information about the concentration of women and men in departments, sectors and positions, the longevity in their current positions and attributes of good managers. The survey was conducted in Albanian; the English version of the survey and informed consent are presented in Appendix 4.

In order to show the current situation of the gender composition of the board of directors of the joint stock companies and reflect on the need of the imposed quota on board membership in

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joint stock companies, the joint stock companies were contacted. The list of businesses and the contact persons were taken from the MTI. From the 53 companies that responded to the request, 15% were publicly owned and 85% were private.

8.3 Limitations One of the main limitations faced, while doing research was the lack of data. Some of the data needed for this research were nonexistent or they were not complete with numbers. The primary data were extracted only in Pristina and the number of surveyed participants was relatively low because of the unwillingness of citizens to fill in the survey. Furthermore, the unequal participation of women and men does not lead to completely equal results and this is the reason why in some instances, percentages were extracted within each gender and then compared. Some of the company owners were unresponsive to emails and phone calls, thus, the information was collected from the companies who responded to the questions via either email or phone calls.

9. Results From the interviews and surveys with individuals and joint stock companies, the results have been classified in four categories, which will be elaborated in detail. Namely, unequal upbringing, confidence, gender differences in managerial roles and quota will be analyzed separately.

A total of 161 responses were collected from the primary data gathering, out of which, 71 are men and 90 women, 44% and 56% respectively. The majority of the respondents pertain to the 18-25 age interval (36%). Out of the total pool of respondents, more than half’s level of education (61.5%) is a Bachelor degree, 29.8% with Masters degree, 6.8% with a High School degree only, whereas, only 1.9%, that is three people have a PhD.

Table 3: Number of women and men in each category of education from the total number of survey of respondents

Level of Education Women Men Primary School 0 0 High School 5 6 Bachelor 54 45 Master 28 20

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PhD 3 0 Total 90 71 The fields of work from the overall respondents are diverse. Gender distribution in the labor market reflects the situation in the enrollment of students in the University of Pristina, which has been explained in the Literature Review. There are more women in Education, Justice, Fashion, Economy, Culture, Health, and Real Estate, with a more than 50% participation. Whereas, the participation of men is more prevalent in Business, Agriculture, Architecture, Energy, Geodesy, Manufacturing, Security, Informative Technology, and Telecommunication. The participation of women and men was equal in the Food industry.

Table 4 Participation of women and men in each field

% of women per % of men per Field Total Women field Men sector Total % Business 49 22 44.9 27 55.1 100 Agriculture 1 0 0 1 100 100 Architecture 1 0 0 1 100 100 Education 45 29 64.4 16 35.6 100 Justice 14 11 78.6 3 21.4 100 Economy 13 8 61.5 5 38.5 100 Energy 2 0 0 2 100 100 Fashion 1 1 100 0 0 100 Geodesy 1 0 0 1 100 100 Culture 8 6 75 2 25 100 Manufacturing 1 0 0 1 100 100 Health 5 5 100 0 0 100 Security 13 5 38.5 8 61.5 100 Informative Technology 3 1 33.3 2 66.7 100 Telecommunication 1 0 0 1 100 100 Food 2 1 50 1 50 100 Real Estate 1 1 100 0 0 100 Total 161 90 55.9 71 44.1 100 9.1 Unequal upbringing One of the main factors that has increased the gender disparity gap in most spheres in Kosovo, based on interviews, is the unequal upbringing of children from their early childhood. Starting from family, boys are treated differently and are given more opportunities than their sisters are. Since childhood is a crucial phase in a person’s personality development, the initial social,

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emotional and cognitive traits are embedded in an individual’s character from that early stage of life. Consequently, children cultivate their identity, belonging to a social group, beliefs and most importantly self-worth based on the first educators that surround them, who are parents and their immediate circle (Personal Interview, December 4, 2018).

The gender-based path in an individual is paved quite early in life. Starting from the toy selection that is made for children to the gender roles portrayed to them from family, media and society in general, young girls and boys already create a list of requirements they have to fulfill in order to meet the expectations for each gender. Girls are taught to be more cautious of their behavior, their language and their manners, whereas, boys are given more independence on their way of living (Personal Interview, October 29, 2018). If they fail to comply with the gender assigned roles and behaviors, boys pass with greater ease through the punishments for their mistakes than girls do. This form of unequal punishment has made girls to grow into more docile women than men are. They follow rules and social norms with greater strictness so that they avoid punishment and social shaming (Personal Interview, December 4, 2018).

In families with financial problems, where the parents have no opportunity to send all their children to school, usually, boys are educated whereas girls remain home and take care of younger siblings and do the chores. With low ambitions and a narrow perspective of life, in such situations, these young girls get married at a young age and in some cases without their consent (Personal Interview, November 12, 2018). The economic problem is also emphasized when it comes to the inheriting of property and capital. Women in Kosovo, inherit less property and capital from their parents than men do. One of the reasons behind this occurrence is that the man will create his own family and as a provider, he needs to have an infrastructure and capital in place in order to grow what he has inherited (Personal Interview, November 20, 2018). Whereas, women as caregivers, are expected to be in charge of the flow of the less tangible components of the family structure, such as educating children, taking care of the elderly, doing the chores and preparing food. From an economic perspective, the lack of capital ownership has penalized women from creating and opening businesses of their own. They face more challenges to start businesses and lack funding to do so then men do (Personal Interview, November 20, 2018). To conclude, the interviewees

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agreed that change comes from family and only family as a crucial entity in society has the power to uproot gender inequality.

9.2 Confidence In order to succeed in the market and be upgraded in different levels, an individual needs to have confidence. In the sample surveyed for this research project, women have shown to have slightly less confidence then men did. To measure their confidence, the respondents were asked on the range of criteria they have to fulfill in order to apply for a job and request for a promotion after they have completed some years in the same position. The results show that 57.1% of the surveyed women apply for a job when they have fulfilled all of the criteria, whereas, 50.7% of men respondents apply for a job when they meet the same criteria. From this sample, men respondents were more willing to apply for a job when they meet more than half of the criteria than women do.

Apply for a job when they fulfill

None of the criteria

Less than half of the criteria

Half of the criteria

More than half of the criteria

All of the critera

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0

Men Women

Figure 2: Application for a job according to gender The situation when men and women request a promotion is nearly identical. Approximately 67.9% of women request a promotion when they fulfill all of the criteria and similarly, 67.6% of men do so under the same criteria fulfillment. This shows that from this sample, men and women show almost the same level of confidence to request for a promotion if they have already secured a job for an extended period.

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Request a promotion when they fulfill

None of the criteria

Less than half of the criteria

Half of the criteria

More than half of the criteria

All of the critera

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0

Men Women

Figure 3 Request for a promotion according to gender On the other hand, the results from the interviews on this regard were slightly different. From the working experience and hiring opportunities that the interviewees had, women tended to show lower confidence levels than men. When it comes to applying for a job or requesting a promotion, women are more skeptical of their abilities and knowledge and they tend to mentally underqualify themselves (Interviewee 2, 2018). The opposite takes place with men. They apply for jobs and request for promotions by believing more in themselves than women do. In some instances, women who were working for years in a company refused to accept the promotion offered by their supervisors because they were more risk averse. They agreed to complete the task of the person who would receive the promotion but they refused to receive the title because they did not want to risk their reputation and the name of the company by having decision-making powers with an increased probability of failure (Interviewee 4, 2018).

9.3 Perceived managerial traits based on gender From the combination of agentic and communal traits that are attributed to a good manager, the most frequently chosen traits by the survey respondents were motivating (31%), interpersonal skills (16%), delegating (14%) and emotional intelligence (10%). Motivating, interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence belong to the group of communal traits that are traditionally related to women, whereas delegating is an agentic trait that according to the societal norms belongs to men’s nature. In other words, three out of four of the most frequently selected traits belonging to a good

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manager are communal in nature. Even though in practice there are more men managers, the qualities belonging to women’s nature are more preferred in this project’s sample.

Traits attributed to a good manager

Motivating Delegating 2%0% 10% Interpersonal Skills 9% 31% Emotional Intelligence Strict 5% 3% Tolerating 10% Assisting 14% Caring 16% Dominant Ability to take decisions

Figure 4 Main traits attributed to a good manager A good manager’s composition of personality traits differs according to the gender of the respondents. Based on the socially attributed roles and personality of both genders, the traits chosen in a good manager were different among men and women. Approximately 61.5% of the respondents who chose “strict” as a good trait were women, which could be related to the preference of a more organized and planned out lifestyle. “Dominance” as a good personality attribute was chosen more by men, specifically 87.5% of the respondents pertained to men, which according to social norms is a trait belonging to their gender. Similarly, respondents that chose “motivating”, “caring” and “assisting” were women in larger percentages than men were. It can be witnessed that from this sample that women and men chose communal and agentic traits, respectively, to belong to a good manager.

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Gender differences in choosing the best managerial traits

Professional Ability to take decisions Dominant Caring Assisting Tolerating Strict Emotional Intelligence Interpersonal Skills Delegating Motivating

0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 120.0

Men Women

Figure 5 Main traits attributed to a good manager according to gender When it comes to the perception of competence and authority, Interviewee 3 stated that throughout their careers, women, who had adopted agentic traits were more successful and taken more seriously by their superiors and coworkers (Personal Interview, November 20, 2018). In order to succeed in current positions, women leaders and managers had to pick up attributes that socially belong to men and thus were more masculine. “In rooms, where tables are filled with men only, you had to have masculine attributes to be taken more seriously,” stated one of the interviewees (Personal Interview, November 20, 2018). In most situations when women had to prove themselves, they had to look and talk like men. This trait then escalated to situations when the feminine traits (communal roles) slowly diminished. Women, who are currently in power positions, have gone through many obstacles and struggles to get to where they were. They had to face social prejudice, stereotypes and deal with gender roles at the same time. From the start of their careers, women faced double burdens. The first one being the burden of first receiving the job and then proving herself for the second time that she is capable of doing the job and persisting to perform excellently.

Qualitative analysis also revealed the importance of the role of women towards other women in careers. When it comes to helping one another, women are more reluctant to help another

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woman to get to the same position. They do so with more hesitation than men and according to the interviewees, this occurrence has penalized women even more and it has prevented them from escaping the inequality trap. Survey results show that throughout their careers, 48% of the women respondents have been assisted more by male managers, 32.9% claimed to have been assisted more by women managers and 18.6% of them did not know from which gender had they been assisted more during their careers. From the surveyed people for this project, there were more men managers in the respondents’ workplace then there were women. Specifically, 32.3% stated that they had one or no women manager in their workplace and only 14.9% of the respondents stated that they are managed by more than five women managers.

Women managers in the workplace

15% 0-1 32% 16% 2--3 4--5 more than 5 37%

Figure 6 Percentage of the number of women managers in the respondents' workplace The results of the survey also follow the findings of existing research stating that men are more willing to have men managers than women managers. Out of 78 respondents, who claim that they have had more men managers in their careers, 38 are women and 40 are men. On the other hand, from the pool of 53 respondents with more female managers present in their careers, 20 are men and 33 are women.

The perception of the managerial and leadership roles also differs among genders. The results from the survey show that when the respondents were asked to rate statements inferring that men are better leaders and managers from 1 to 5, 1 being very true and 5 being not true at all, women responded more negatively than men. Approximately 38.5% of women strongly disagreed

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that it is better to have men managers and leaders, whereas, only 14.3% of men did so. Similarly, 32.9% of women strongly disagree that men are better leaders and managers and only 11.8% of men strongly disagreed on this occurrence. This sample shows that men accept men managers more than they accept women managers.

In work places where there are men and women, it is better to have men in leading positions

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0 45.0

Men Women

Figure 7 Statement 1 perception according to gender

Men are better leaders and managers

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0

Men Women

Figure 8 Statement 2 perception according to gender

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9.4 Quotas The Law on Business Organizations, published on the Official Gazette of Kosovo from March 2018, paragraph 2.5.1. states that the Board of Directors of a joint stock company must have a quota of 40% women fulfilled or else the company will be sanctioned (Article 34, par. 2.5.1.). Even though it is a short period of time to see progress on the implementation of this quota, the current situation of the boards of joint stock companies sampled for this project shows that women are underrepresented in these boards. From the surveyed joint stock companies, the majority had two or three board members, specifically 26.7% and 22.2%.

Private Joint Stock Companies' Number of Board Members # of board # of % of members companies companies 0 8 17.8 1 2 4.4 2 12 26.7 3 10 22.2 4 3 6.7 5 5 11.1 6 2 4.4 7 2 4.4 11 1 2.2 Total 45 100 Table 5 Private Joint Stock Companies' Number of Board Members The gender composition of the boards of the sampled joint stock companies was not gender equal. More than half of the companies had less than 40% women in their board of directors. More specifically, 75.67% of the companies’ board seats were filled with less than 40% women. Out of the sampled joint stock companies, 54% of them had less than 10% women in their boards. Only 13.51% of the joint stock companies have met the quota with 40% to 50% women in directors’ boards.

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61-70% 71-80% 3% 0% 0-10% 51-60% 91-100% 5% 3% 11-20% 21-30% 41-50% 13% 81-90% 31-40% 0% 41-50% 31-40% 11% 51-60% 0-10% 21-30% 61-70% 54% 3% 71-80% 11-20% 81-90% 8% 91-100%

Figure 9 Percentage of Companies with Percentage Intervals of Women in the Board of Directors with 1 or More Than 1 Board Member Voluntary regimes of companies to include more women in their decision making processes has shown to be minimal to nonexistent. Consequently, the interviewees saw quotas as a good opportunity to increase the participation of women in the labor force in all sectors. Without quotas, women would have never be given the chance to be in leading and managing positions. The skepticism regarding quotas, namely quantity over quality, is not a tremendous issue for interviewees since quantity transforms to quality. As such, quotas are a crucial tool to speed up the process of women’s empowerment. The mentality cannot be changed simply by raising awareness and promoting the idea of women’s inclusion. Systematic changes need to be made and those have to be supported by law. Women’s inclusion in the labor market does not benefit women only. The entire economy benefits from the diversity brought and for a new point of view in issues being discussed. Women compose half of the population and they should have a fair share of decision- making power even in economic related topics.

10. Recommendations  Introduce gender mainstreaming in labor market’s policies and implement the desired actions in order to increase women’s participation but at the same time diversify the gender composition in each occupation.  Decrease the discriminatory language in job advertisements by monitoring the announcements through entities assigned by law, which aim to increase gender equality.

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 Increase inspections in private companies, primarily focusing on the inspection of contracts and whether all employees are equipped with one.  Monitor and sanction the implementation/disobedience of the gender sensitive laws since the laws are in place, nonetheless, their implementation is lacking by different institutions and companies, be it private or public.  Women in leadership and managerial positions will increase and incentivize other women to do so. Having more women in such positions, will give a voice to the less privileged parts of Kosovo’s society and decrease the power of the more privileged. Thus, raising the awareness of the importance of gender diversity through training programs, information sessions and public announcements would impact the public perception of women as managers and leaders.  After the quota on the board of directors is fulfilled by the majority of the companies, a quota may be imposed on the senior management of companies in order to achieve the same effect as the quota on the board of directors of joint stock companies.

11. Conclusion Primary data collected by the interviews show that women are underrepresented in the labor market in Kosovo. The interviewees stated that gender bias exists and this has penalized women from successfully competing in the market. The main penalizing cause of women marginalization, especially in the labor market, according to the interviewees was Kosovo’s mentality and unequal upbringing of boys and girls. Furthermore, women had to adopt traits that belonged to men usually in order to succeed and be taken seriously as managers and leaders. Women are less confident in applying for jobs than men are and they usually apply when they fulfill most or all of the criteria. Even though the gender differences in this aspect have been expected to be greater based on literature review, men and women in this aspect have slight differences.

Based on the profiles of the jobs and the career paths that the survey respondents and data from the enrollment of students in university, it can be witnessed that there are gender based occupations prominent in our society. Women have chosen jobs, which are traditionally women professions and at the same time women managers in the workplace are fewer than men managers.

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The survey respondents claimed that they had been assisted more by men managers throughout their careers. At the same time, the traits of good managers that the respondents preferred were a combination of agentic and communal traits. Whereas, the quota that has been imposed on the board of joint stock companies is not being implemented. Where, more than half of the joint stock companies had 0 or less than 10% of women in their board of directors.

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13. Appendices Appendix 1- Total number of students at the Bachelor level at the University of Prishtina "Hasan Prishtina" in 2017/2018

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Appendix 2-Interview questions for the first three interviewees 1. What is your opinion on the position of women in managerial positions in the private sector in Kosovo? 2. Knowing that there is a low number of women in managerial positions in the private sector, what are the main reasons of such a low participation rate according to your opinion? 3. Do you believe that the lack of women role models in managerial positions has disincentivized women to apply and take jobs with managerial responsibilities? 4. Throughout your career, when you encountered women in managerial positions, what were their attributes? Did they have characteristics that based on social norms are masculine? Does a woman need to have masculine attributes in order to be taken more seriously by others? 5. Based on research, women do not apply for a job if they do not fulfill all the criteria. Do you believe that this occurrence takes place because women are not prone to taking risks because of historic/social/economic conditions? 6. The Law on Business Organizations in Kosovo, approved by the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo last year, says that 40% of the managerial boards for private companies must be women. Two years after the implementation of this law, this quota is to be raised to 50%. Do you think that this quota is being respected and what is your opinion on quotas? Do you think they are effective, or in contrary, counter effective?

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7. Corporations are comprised of the management board, senior officials and other stakeholders. Do you believe that another quota on senior management, besides the quota on boards, would improve the situation of women underrepresentation in management? If yes, would it be realistic to push such an idea forward? 8. In Kosovo, ‘gender mainstreaming’, a gender perspective in the formulation and implementation of policies and laws, that promotes gender equality, is applied. How is this done in our country and who are the main stakeholders involved? 9. How much are social norms taken into consideration in the formulation of laws in Kosovo? If laws and norms clash with each other, how is this occurrence mitigated? 10. What would you recommend to improve the situation in the private sector in Kosovo?

Appendix 3-Interview questions for the fourth interviewee 1. What is your opinion on the position of women in managerial positions in the private sector in Kosovo? 2. In your company, how many women in managerial positions are there? What about men? 3. Knowing that there is a low number of women in managerial positions in the private sector, what are the main reasons of such a low participation rate according to your opinion? 4. Do you have a gender equality policy in your company? 5. What is the perception of women managers from her team of employees in your company? 6. Throughout your career, when you encountered women in managerial positions, what were their attributes? Did they have characteristics that based on social norms are masculine? Does a woman need to have masculine attributes in order to be taken more seriously by others? 7. The Law on Business Organizations in Kosovo, approved by the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo last year, says that 40% of the managerial boards for private companies must be women. Two years after the implementation of this law, this quota is to be raised to 50%. How much is this quota respected in your company? 8. Corporations are comprised of the management board, senior officials and other stakeholders. Do you believe that another quota on senior management, besides the quota

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on boards, would improve the situation of women underrepresentation in management? If yes, would it be realistic to push such an idea forward? 9. What would you recommend to improve the situation in the private sector in Kosovo?

Appendix 4- Informed Consent and Survey Questions

Informed Consent Form for Social Science Research RIT Kosovo Title of Project: Gender Bias in Managerial Positions for the Private Sector in Kosovo

Principal Investigator: Diona Hoxha, RIT Kosovo Student [email protected] +38649390677 Purpose of the Study: This capstone project analyzes gender bias in managerial positions by focusing on its impact on privately owned enterprises and evaluates whether gender equality leads to benefits for the private sector. Additionally, it elaborates on the concept of gender quotas in management and analyzes effects in managerial positions.

1. Procedures to be followed: You will be asked to answer 21 questions during this survey. 2. Duration: It will take about 6 minutes to complete the survey. 3. Statement of Confidentiality: Your participation in this research is confidential. The data will be used for qualitative insights and for research analysis only. 4. Voluntary Participation: Your decision to be in this research is voluntary. You can stop at any time. You do not have to answer any questions you do not want to answer.

You must be 18 years of age or older and to be working/have worked in the private sector in Kosovo to take part in this research study. If you agree to take part in this research study and the information outlined above, please sign your name and indicate the date below.

You will be given a copy of this form for your records.

______

Participant Signature Date

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______

Person Obtaining Consent Date

Survey Questions

1. Gender o Male o Female

2. Age: o 18-25 o 26-33 o 34-41 o 42-49 o +50

3. Level of education o Primary o Secondary o Bachelor o Masters o PhD

4. Employment status: o Employed full time o Employed part time o Self-employed o Unemployed o Other, specify: ______

5. Marital status: o Married o Not married

6. Do you have children? o No o Yes

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7. Living in: o Rural area o Urban area

8. Years of work experience o 0-3 o 4-7 o 8-10 o +11

9. Field of work: o Education o Health o Business o Justice o Agriculture o Farming o Construction o Energy o Food o Manufacturing o Sport o Culture o Security o Economy o Other, specify: ______

10. Position: o Director o Manager o Division leader o Officer o Assistant o Sales person o Other, specify: ______

11. Department: o Operations o Finance o Procurement o Human Resources o Accounting/Audit

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o Informative Technology o Marketing/ Public Relations o Sales o Logistics o Other, specify: ______

12. You have been in this position for: o 0-1 years o 2-3 years o 4-6 years o +6 years

13. How many women in managerial positions are in your workplace? o 0-1 o 2-3 o 4-5 o +5

14. During your career, you have been assisted more by: o Managers who were men o Managers who were women o I do not know

15. Choose three of the main qualities of a good manager: o Motivating o Delegating o Interpersonal skills o Emotional Intelligence o Strict o Tolerating o Assisting o Caring o Dominant o Other, specify: ______

16. You apply for a job when you fulfill: o All of the criteria o More than half of the criteria o Half of the criteria o Less than half of the criteria o None of the criteria

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17. Do you make a request for promotion if you think that you are qualified for that position? o Yes o No

18. How many of the criteria do you have to fulfill if you were to ask for a promotion? o All of the criteria o More than half of the criteria o Half of the criteria o Less than half of the criteria o None of the criteria

19. How many hours a week do you work? o 20-25 hours o 26-35 hours o 36-45 hours o More than 46 hours

20. If you are currently working part time or you would work part time, which of the following would be the main reason? o To take care of the children o To take care of parents/ parents in law o To take care of a person with special needs o There is no other working Schedule o House obligations o Other, specify: ______

21. How true are the below declarations to you (1 very true; 5 not true at all) (UCOM 2018) 1. In work places where there are men and women, it is better to have men in leading positions 1 2 3 4 5 2. Men are better leaders 1 2 3 4

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